In 1983 Tom graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in History and after much work on bringing Laurel Hill to realization as a historical site, he formed the J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust in 1990 and the Free State Of Patrick Internet History Group in 2005.The non-profit organization has preserved 75 acres of the Stuart property including the house site where Stuart was born in 1833. Perry wrote the 8 interpretive signs about Laurel Hill’s history along with the Virginia Civil War Trails sign and the new Virginia Historical Highway Marker in 2002. He spent many years researching, traveling all over the nation to find Stuart. Tom can be seen on Virginia Public Television’s Forgotten Battlefields: The Civil War in Southwest Virginia with his mentor noted Civil War Historian Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. Perry has begun a collection of papers relating to Stuart and Patrick County history in the Special Collections Department of the Carol M. Newman Library at Virginia Tech under the auspices of the Virginia Center For Civil War Studies. He is the author of Ascent to Glory, The Genealogy of J. E. B. Stuart, The Free State of Patrick: Patrick County Virginia in the Civil War, J. E. B. Stuart’s Birthplace: The Stuart Family in America and the Laurel Hill Farm, and Images of America: Patrick County Virginia.

Having read all that you may wonder why there is no mention of Tom Perry on the J.E.B. Stuart website. Here is the text from a speech given to recognize Tom and the Perry family for their contributions. This speech is absolutely glowing ... HERE (you'll need to scroll down a bit to find the speech). Somehow between that speech and 2008 Tom has discovered there really is no thanks extended to him in Patrick County. In fact in the April 13th entry of his blog Tom describes some pretty bad goings-on. Does this surprise you at all? It is embarrassing but not surprising.